The central bank’s job is not to keep the hryvnia exchange rate at fixed level, but to adhere to a 4-year-old policy of a flexible exchange rate

The central bank’s job is not to keep the hryvnia exchange rate at fixed level, but to adhere to a 4-year-old policy of a flexible exchange rate, with the bank smoothing excessive fluctuations, Oleh Churiy, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, said Tuesday at public meeting in Kyiv. Referring to the previous government’s attachment to a rate of eight hryvnia to the dollar, he said: “From 2011 to 2014, the National Bank spent $40 billion to support the exchange rate at a certain level. [Today] our debt in foreign currency is $46 billion. So, count – $40 billion we spent to keep the exchange rate at 8.” He said today’s exchange rate of 28 to the dollar is a return to the level of December 2017.